Hungarian prosecutors drop MOL/INA bribery investigation

30 January 2012 11:35[Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Hungarian prosecutors have closed an investigation into allegations that a high-ranking official of ?xml:namespace>Hungary’s MOL oil, gas and petrochemicals group bribed former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader for control of Croatia’s INA refining company, prosecutors said on Monday.

The investigation had produced no evidence that would show the official or MOL had been involved in any such bribery, Hungary’s Central Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution added.

Last September, Croatian fraud investigators charged Sanader with taking a €10m ($13.2m) bribe from MOL in 2008 in return for arranging MOL management control of INA, in which it currently has a 47.46% stake.

Documents implicating the MOL official were handed over by Croatian prosecutors to their counterparts in Hungary.

However, the Hungarian prosecutors said they had determined that two Cyprus-based firms said to have handed over the bribe were not related to MOL, but were part of the business interests of a major Russian investor, whom they declined to name.